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Understanding ping delays
by Mark Rogers 03 Nov '12

03 Nov '12

Consider: ... 64 bytes from 192.168.251.7: icmp_req=458 ttl=64 time=0.189 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.251.7: icmp_req=459 ttl=64 time=0.123 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.251.7: icmp_req=460 ttl=64 time=0.120 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.251.7: icmp_req=461 ttl=64 time=0.126 ms ... The blank line indicates where there was a delay of a couple of seconds between ping responses. However there were no missed responses (icmp_req goes from 459 to 460) and the time is shown as only 0.120ms. So why was there a delay of a couple of seconds at this point? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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bookmark editors
by mick 02 Nov '12

02 Nov '12

Advice please chaps. I have a really large bookmark collection and I really need to sort it out but have been putting it off because I can't find a decent editor. What I am looking for is something akin to a GUI filemanager which allows me to have two panes open so that I can cut and paste beween them. I'm sure that a very early version of FF used to have this capability, but maybe my memory is faulty. The mozilla addons site doesn't seem to have anything useful. Any suggestions anyone? Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- blog: baldric.net gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] bookmark editors
by mick 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:54:57 +0000 Ricky Bruce <rickybruce(a)gmail.com> allegedly wrote: > > In Opera using the bookmark side panel(F4 and hit the star icon), > along with the 'manage bookmark' option in the bookmark tool bar > gives you two views of your bookmarks, these can be cut and paste > between them and into different folders to allow easyish > reorganisation. It works well enough for my needs > > Opera also offers the option to import bookmarks in from other > browsers. Ricky Thanks for this. It's close, but not quite what I had in mind, and having tried it, it looks to be /very/ time consuming. The problem here is that the left hand pane is linked to the right. So when I click on the left to open a folder, the right pane shpws the contents of that folder and will not show another open folder. This makes comparisons difficult. Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- blog: baldric.net gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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IMAP (GMail) "cache"
by Mark Rogers 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

I have several GMail accounts. Currently I run Thunderbird (IMAP) on my (Ubuntu 12.10) desktop to make sure I have a copy of all of them locally (for local searching, archiving, etc), as well as accessing the IMAP accounts from other devices (phones etc) and via the Gmail web interface. The problem I have is that TB seems to have "issues" that cause it to repeatedly download the same email. This means that on a few occasions recently I have exceeded the Gmail bandwidth allowances (I didn't even know they existed!), and my ADSL usage is sky high - something around 1-2GB per day is being used to synchronise a mailbox that only has about 4GB in it. Therefore I'd like to look at other ways to achieve the same goal. One thought is to use "something else" to create a local copy, which then makes it available to Thunderbird via IMAP (so if TB wants to download the same email hundreds of times at least it's just traffic on localhost). Albeit I'd end up with two copies of the mailstore but that's not a huge issue. So I'm after suggestions as to what the "something else" should be. It's important to me that delays are kept to a minimum, ie incoming email should appear pretty quickly through the cache. That shouldn't be a problem as long as IDLE is supported at each point. Alternatively, suggestions as to "better" methods would be fine too! (I don't really want to change mail client if I can avoid it, old habits and all that.) As an aside, I also have a Windows desktop, which also has TB installed, monitoring some of the same accounts but without having the same bandwidth problem. But even so it would make sense that the Windows TB should also be able to collect from the IMAP store on my Linux desktop and thus save more bandwidth. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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how to decode this?
by Peter Alcibiades 01 Nov '12

01 Nov '12

I have an email with an attachment which will not open in OO. When the email is opened in a text editor I get this after the body of the message. Is there any way to open and read this? Trying to open the attachment in OO just gives an error. Al ------=_NextPart_001_0041_01CC115D.F6E27A10-- ------=_NextPart_000_0040_01CC115D.F6E27A10 Content-Type: application/msword; name="xxxx.doc" Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="xxxx.doc" 0M8R4KGxGuEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPgADAP7/CQAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAPgAAAAAAAAAA EAAAQAAAAAEAAAD+////AAAAAD0AAAD///////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////????//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////s pcEAA4AJBAAA8BK/AAAAAAAAEAAAAAAACAAAFg0AAA4AYmpiarRWtFYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAJBBYANSoAANY8AQDWPAEAFgUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD//w8AAAAA AAAAAAD//w8AAAAAAAAAAAD//w8AAAAAAAAAAAAA????AAAAALcAAAAAAIAFAAAAAAAAgAUAAMMS AAAAAAAAwxIAAAAAAADDEgAAAAAAAMMSAAAAAAAAwxIAABQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP////8AAAAA1xIA AAAAAADXEgAAAAAAANcSAAAAAAAA1xIAAAwAAADjEgAAbAAAANcSAAAAAAAAYBgAAHQBAABPEwAA AAAAAE8TAAAAAAAATxMAAAAAAABPEwAAAAAAAE8TAAAAAAAAKhQAAAAAAAAqFAAAAAAAACoUAAAA

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Linux Repositories
by Michael Goddard 31 Oct '12

31 Oct '12

New to Linux, my distro while excellent for my requirements is somewhat thin on choice of apps to d/l. Are there any non-commercial Linux repositories where such apps are available? Tia.

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Would some people please try this URL?
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 31 Oct '12

31 Oct '12

Greetings all! I would be grateful if some people would try the following link: http://www.uvm.edu/~ngotelli/EcoSim/EcoSim.html I get the response: Forbidden You don't have permission to access /~ngotelli/EcoSim/EcoSim.html on this server. Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) Server at www.uvm.edu Port 80 On the other hand, a collaborator of mine (who is accessing it from a Bristol University computer) gets straight through. I'm wondering if it's due to academic institute versus private domain, or just due to some peculiarity of my Firefox (Iceweasel 2.0.0.19). One test, therefore, is whether other people, not on academic networks, can get through. So reports of tests would be very welcome! With thanks, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 31-Oct-2012 Time: 11:22:50 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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Voltage logging with a PC, ideas wanted for cheap ways to do it
by Chris Green 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

I'm looking for reasonably priced and reasonably easy to implement ways to measure voltages with a computer. To be more specific:- The computer will either be the existing eeePc running Ubuntu (but no GUI) or a raspberry pi. I need to monitor at least four and preferably eight or so voltages, some of these are 12 volts (i.e. lead acid batteries) and others are current transducers giving an output around 2.5 volts with a +-0.5 volts swing. I don't need *incredible* accuracy but something around 2% or better is necessary for it to be useful in monitoring battery charge state. I want it to be cheap! Sample rate can be slow, once an hour would be fine. I have a 1-wire interface implemented which currently measures temperatures but I can't find any quick/easy way to add voltage measurement to 1-wire. It can be done but gets 'messy' and 1-wire seems to be a disappearing technology. I've looked for volts->USB interfaces but can't find much, if someone knows of anything I'd be pleased to hear about it. Any ideas for cheap hardware to do this (I am happy to solder things etc.) would be very welcome. -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 2nd November.
by Viperfang 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Re: [ALUG] Solved [was How to limit passwordless ssh login to allow only outgoing tunnel? Possible?]
by mick 29 Oct '12

29 Oct '12

On Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:57:23 +0000 Mark Rogers <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> allegedly wrote: > On 27 October 2012 18:02, mick <mbm(a)rlogin.net> wrote: > > > I had a think about this and then set up a test system to enable > > someone "on the internet" to connect to another system "on the > > internet" behind two (or more) NAT routers. > > > > That all looks great, thanks for the effort. I need to find the time > to play with it but it looks like a good starting point for me. > > I wasn't sure looking through it (I haven't read it in detail yet) > whether it dealt with Chris' specific problem of ensuring that anyone > who got onto the boat did not thus gain access to his home network? Yes it does. Because the VPN end point is on a VPS "somewhere out there" and not on his home network (where it could easily be placed). The only connection between the VPS and the home network is an SSH session out to the VPS from the home network. Of course someone on the boat could get out to the VPS if they could compromise the boat system and knew the client VPN passwords (though I didn't use passwords in my example). > For my needs, what I really want is a single server (VPS) with the > ability to control which connections can connect to which (and in > which direction). Ie I might have 10 "devices" and 10 "users" (ie 20 > connections to the VPN/VPS). In general (but I'm sure I'd find an > exception!) no two "users" should be able to connect to each other. > The "devices" should not be able to connect to anything (again I'm > sure I'd find an exception). I'd then be able to control which > "users" could connect to which "devices", ideally though something I > can easily manage (eg a database). Beyond that basic level I don't > really need the ability to control which ports are accessed by which > users but again I'm sure I'd quickly find exceptions to that rule. > So, is this something I can manage completely at the VPS end? Is it > "just" an iptables configuration issue? (I don't have much experience > with iptables but really should change that.) No, it is not just iptables configuration. Take a look at the main openvpn.net "howto" - specifically the section marked: "Configuring client-specific rules and access policies" Essentially what you do is specify individual client configurations in a specific directory on the server and then refer to those configurations in a server side directive (e.g. "client-config-dir /etc/openvpn/clients/client-1"). Each client is then given a specific (and separate) ip address and route to the VPN end point. The VPN server "pushes" those addresses and routes out to the clients when they connect. You then use iptables rules to forward the appropriate traffic over the tun interface. This has the advantage that (as you want) no two clients can see each other's networks (unless you want them to and configure the VPN server appropriately) > > (For the record, I think I have already come up with exceptions for > all of the cases listed above, so think of the above as "defaults" > not "fixed in stone" :-) There are /always/ exceptions... Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- blog: baldric.net gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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